Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbullvisited
with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad on Saturday. During the
unannounced trip Turnbull also spoke to troops at the nearby military base in Taji,
where about 300 Australian soldiers are stationed.

The state-run South Oil Co.‘s deputy director general
Salah Mahdi says
oil exports are passing through Basra without tribal clashes affecting
them. Tensions between rival Shi’ite clans recently forced the Iraqi government
to send in an armored division and police force to tamp down on the fighting.
The clashes are unrelated to the war against the Islamic State.

The Kurdish Regional Government’s Deputy Prime
Minister Qubad Talabani, fears
that plummeting oil prices will seriously damage the K.R.G.’s ability to fight
the Islamic State militants. Iraq’s main source of income is oil, but even when
oil prices were much higher, both governments had difficulty paying their
bills. In the Kurdish government’s case, the shortfall is hurting its ability
to pay Peshmerga security forces. Subsequently, the government may have to sell
off some of its assets, such as parts of its electricity sector.